The Detroit Lions kicked off their 2018 NFL season on Monday night with defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson out of uniform. The former Alabama standout wasn't injured. Instead, he was a healthy scratch for the Lions' first game under coach Matt Patricia.

Every NFL team has 53 players on its active roster, but only 46 of them can play in a game. That means each game, a team must designate seven players as inactive.

Three of the Lions' inactive players for their opener against the New York Jets on Monday night have Alabama football roots -- cornerback Dee Virgin (West Alabama), who joined Detroit as a waiver-wire claim on Sept. 3; running back Ameer Abdullah (Homewood), who led the team in rushing yards in 2015 and 2017; and Robinson, who started every game and led the Lions' interior defensive linemen with 735 snaps in 2017.

The Lions' injury report for the game included only two players -- offensive tackle Andrew Donnal, who missed the game with a knee injury, and defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois, who was listed as having an illness, but started in the spot formerly held by Robinson.

Jean-Francois is a nine-year veteran who's been a full-time starter twice in his career. He played six regular-season and three playoff games last season with the New England Patriots, where Patricia was the defensive coordinator.

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"He's been through some different programs with different organizations and understands what it takes," Patricia said of Jean-Francois after the Lions' third preseason game. "In particular with me and the scheme and what we're looking for, he has some good insight to give the players. He's a guy I trust and rely on."

When asked about a perceived step back by Robinson before Detroit's third preseason game, Patricia had said: "While we're trying to do maybe some different techniques and things like that, a lot of stuff he's actually familiar with from maybe some of the stuff he did coming out of college. So (he's) doing a great job of trying to just understand what we need from that standpoint and learn.

"I think that's a guy that works really hard. He's a very smart player. Doesn't say much, but he's really smart, and he can help those other guys out, too. So just mixing him through. Kind of rolling all those guys through there and trying to see what are the different combinations."

Robinson's benching should create more playing opportunities for the Lions' other defensive lineman from Alabama, Da'Shawn Hand, who is making his NFL debut on Monday night.